by Dena Garson
“Yes.”
“You do look like a daughter of Ireland.” A frown creased his forehead as he continued to study her.
Katie squirmed nervously. “Did I suddenly sprout horns out of the top of my head?” she finally asked, uncomfortable with the way Seamus was looking at her.
“I was just thinking you look like someone I’ve seen before.” He absently rubbed his chin as he got lost in his thoughts once again. Then he shook his head as if to clear it and said, “I’ll think of it later.”
“If you say so,” Katie mumbled. “So,” she said brightly, changing the subject. “How did you come to be a spirit at Tullamore? Were you mortally wounded in battle on the castle grounds? Or did you fall off one of the castle walls during a siege? Or anything like that?”
Seamus’ face darkened. Katie instinctively leaned back, away from the rage and disgust she saw in his eyes.
“I was cursed by a whore pretending to be a lady.”
Chapter Three
“Cursed?” Katie asked. Chills broke out across her skin. Was he for real?
Based on all her experiences with the odd and the unusual it was hard for her to dispute what he said, but the idea of someone being cursed was horrifying.
Seamus nodded curtly. “Aye, cursed.”
“So you were killed when the, er, when you were cursed?”
“I wasn’t killed.” At her wide-eyed stare he added, “I’m not dead.”
“But…”
He shook his head, continuing to deny what she insisted was the truth.
“I can see you though,” she insisted.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re one of the few who can.”
“Yeah, but I see ghosts. You know, people who have died but their spirits haven’t gone over to the other side? How is it that I can see you if you aren’t dead?”
“You see people who are still alive too.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s because I’m both. Or neither.” He stood suddenly and raked his hand through his hair. “I’m not sure what I am. I haven’t known for a great many years.” His voice trailed off as he added, “Somewhere along the way I gave up trying to figure it out.”
Katie’s heart ached for him. It must be horrible living a half-life and not being able to interact with people the way he used to. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. “What happened when you were… Well, when this curse went into effect?”
Her question jarred Seamus from his thoughts. He walked over to the window closest to the fireplace and looked out. “I was born in the year of our Lord, 1703.”
Katie couldn’t contain her gasp of surprise.
“When I was fourteen I apprenticed with a well-known woodcarver in a neighboring town. After I served out my apprenticeship I returned to Kilmorny to be near my family.
“My younger brother had died the previous year and my father was in poor health. Once I saw how much my mother needed me, I set out to find work. Lord Thomas Chichester held Tullamore back then and was working on one of the many expansions to the castle. I made an agreement with him for a few small carvings and once he saw my work, he decided to hire me exclusively for the work in the new section of the castle.”
Katie shifted on the couch but Seamus didn’t turn away from the window. She guessed it was hard for him to dredge up those memories.
“I spent a lot of time at Tullamore. Along with dozens of other local men who had been hired to work there. Unfortunately having that many able-bodied men behind the castle walls drew the attention of the Lord’s much-younger and over-pampered wife Etain.
“Etain was a beautiful woman. It was far too easy for her to catch the eye of the men around her. And almost every man she lured to her bed went, whether they were married or not.”
Seamus finally turned and looked at Katie. “Until me.”
“You told her no?” she asked.
Seamus nodded.
“And she didn’t like it,” Katie guessed.
“No, she didn’t.” Seamus paced the width of the room. “At first she thought I was just trying to do right by his Lordship, but after repeatedly refusing her, she became angry.
“She tried telling me his Lordship would never know. Then she tried to make me feel sorry for her. More than once she hinted at how lonely it was living in the castle with nothing but servants because her husband was too busy doing things for the king or settling disputes between peasants.”
At Katie’s snort of disbelief, Seamus grinned. “She truly had a gift for weaving a sad story.”
“I’m sure she did.” Katie let her contempt show in each word.
“When she realized I wasn’t falling for her story, she resorted to trickery. She followed me around, waiting for opportunities to corner me. She told me if I didn’t do as she wanted, she would tell her husband I had attacked her.”
“Damn. How desperate was she?” Katie exclaimed.
Seamus seemed surprised by Katie’s outburst.
“Not that I’m surprised she’d want to sleep with you because, well, you…” Katie’s face blushed scarlet. “I mean that you’re so…”
She waved a hand in his direction but couldn’t look him in the eye. “I’m just making a blunder of this,” Katie muttered. She folded her arms across her chest and sank into the corner of the couch.
“How about if I just take that as a compliment and go on with my story, then?” Seamus asked with a quirk of his lips.
“Please do.” Katie sulked.
“I found myself going to great lengths to make sure I was never alone with Etain. Any time she was around, if I couldn’t leave immediately I had at least two other people nearby.”
“That had to be annoying.”
“To be sure,” Seamus agreed. “But I needed the work and, in truth, I enjoyed putting my training to use.” He raised his hand up in front of his face and curled his fingers into a fist then flexed them out again. “After all these years, I do miss working the wood,” he said wistfully.
“I’m sure avoiding Etain drove her up the wall. What did she do?”
“It took a few decades to figure out, but I learned Etain went to the local wisewoman to purchase a love spell and ended up stealing her spell book.”
“A wisewoman who sold love spells?” she asked with a lift of one eyebrow.
Shrugging one shoulder, Seamus said, “Wisewoman. Healer. Witch. They’ve been called many things. All I can tell you is that there have been generations of women who have lived in this area and have helped and even protected the people of Tullamore Castle with their extraordinary gifts.”
“All women?”
“Yes. Apparently the abilities and the knowledge pass from mother to daughter. What few sons were born to these women had none of their gifts.”
“What kind of gifts?” Katie’s heartbeat sped up.
Seamus turned in her direction. “Stories have been told of the Mac au Bhaird for centuries. Most had a skill for growing herbs and for healing. Because of their close ties to Tullamore, they are able to sense when danger approaches. Some could even tell you what was going to happen. There were others that could supposedly control the weather.”
Katie shivered as a chill passed through her. “Interesting,” she mumbled. She was determined not to give anything away about her connection to the Mac au Bhaird family. That knowledge was still new to her and she wasn’t sure what to think. Perhaps once she’d met some of the family she’d feel better. If they had similar abilities to her and her mother, maybe she’d feel less like a freak. Katie shook free of her thoughts and asked, “So how did she put the spell on you? Say a few magic words and wave a wand? Or did she give you some kind of potion?”
“A potion, I’m afraid.”
“How did she get you to drink it?”
“That was easy enough,” he snorted. “She sent one of the kitchenmaids with a tankard of drink out to where I was working. It was a warm summer day and I was caught up in the carving I was working o
n. I thought it was full of spiced cider until after I had swallowed most of it.”
Seamus began to pace again.
“You don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to,” Katie said quietly. “I can tell it bothers you.”
“I don’t mind the telling.” He ran one hand through his hair and rubbed his forehead as if it ached right between his eyes. “It’s difficult to sift through the gaps of what I remember about that day.”
Once more Seamus returned to the window. “I remember thinking the drink tasted funny and that I’d been poisoned. My head was swimming and I tried to get help.”
He stared out the window but Katie could tell he wasn’t seeing anything outside. He was focused on the scene in his head.
“Everything got fuzzy and I collapsed before I could even get to the door. Next time I opened my eyes, Etain was kneeling next to me, telling me how she wished she didn’t have to do it, but that I needed to say something. Something about her and me. Then there was a woman screaming and a slap. When I opened my eyes again, Etain had the kitchen girl by the arm and was telling her to keep quiet or she’d be sorry. The girl was holding her cheek and crying. What was odd was she was looking at me and appeared to be more afraid of me than of Etain.
“When I reached for the girl, wanting to help her, she became even more frightened and backed away despite Etain’s grip on her arm. That’s when I noticed that I could see through most of my hand and arm.”
“Oh God, Seamus,” Katie whispered.
“I’m not sure what happened next. Etain said something but I didn’t pay attention because I was trying to figure out what was happening to me. I remember thinking my body felt as if it were stuffed with wool and there was an odd tingling everywhere. I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew I was in a dark room with no candles or lamps.
“I stumbled around the room, trying to figure out where I was, but I was weak and my head felt as if I had been drinking the strongest ale made. It didn’t take long to realize I couldn’t feel things as I used to. As I lay on the floor, it was no longer cold or hard. Just there, somehow. As I stumbled around the room I felt no furniture in my path. When I stumbled through the wall into the hallway with no impediment, I knew something was very, very wrong.”
Seamus turned to look at Katie. She stared back, misty-eyed. She couldn’t even imagine going through that without losing a little bit of sanity.
He walked to the couch and crouched down before her. “Why do you cry?”
“It’s just not right that someone could do something like that to another person,” Katie said emphatically. “To curse you to a pseudo-life for no reason. No reason other than her own greed.”
Seamus reached up and Katie thought he was going to wipe her tear away. She was surprised when something cool and tingly brushed her cheek. “What did you just do?”
“I…” Seamus looked at his hand. “I touched your tear.” He rubbed his finger and thumb together. “And maybe your face.” He sat back on his haunches.
“But I felt something. Something that felt cool and kind of buzzy.” Katie absently patted the spot on her cheek where he had touched. “It was kind of like putting your tongue on the prongs of a nine-volt battery.” When she got no response from Seamus she asked, “You’ve never done that, have you?”
He shook his head.
“Well, it’s a weird feeling. Not painful. Just, well, weird. What did it feel like to you?”
“For the first time in hundreds of years, I felt warmth. It was, as you said, weird. And surprising.”
“In all this time, you haven’t felt warmth whenever you touched anyone else?”
“No. And believe me, I’ve tried a lot of different things, testing the limits of being a spirit. Some of those, quite frankly, were even done as a desperate attempt to end this existence.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Would you mind if I tried it again, to see if it was just a chance occurrence?”
“You want to touch me again?” Katie sat up straight. “No. I mean, yes.” A faint blush warmed her cheeks. “I mean I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure?” Seamus tried to hold back his grin but failed.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She cleared her throat. “I’m, uh, curious. In the past, when I’ve come in contact with spirits, I have never felt anything other than chilled air.”
Katie turned her face and leaned closer, basically presenting her cheek to him. “All right. Go ahead.”
When he didn’t move, Katie glanced at him from the corner of her eye. He seemed more interested in the freckles on her nose and cheeks than the tingles he’d felt.
“Did it work?” Katie prompted.
“I, uh, sorry. I got lost in a thought,” he said, shaking off whatever he’d been thinking. He raised his hand to touch her and Katie saw it tremble just inches away from her face.
When they made contact, it surprised them both.
“Whoa.” Katie’s eyes widened but she didn’t pull away. “There is definitely something there.”
Seamus slid his hand up her cheek and into her hair.
“What does that feel like?” he asked Katie, his voice rough with emotion.
“It’s… It’s a cool, tingly feeling. Almost like the way peppermint feels.”
“Peppermint.” He ran his hand through her hair, following the strands down her shoulder and onto her arm. “So is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“I, uh… It’s definitely not a bad thing.” Katie swallowed nervously. “What about you? You said you felt warmth?”
He looked up. “Not a great deal. But after hundreds of years of nothingness, even that bit of warmth is a blessing.”
“How about if I try it?”
“Try what?”
“Try touching you.”
“Please do.”
“Okay, sit back and close your eyes. I don’t want you to anticipate feeling something. I’d rather know for sure you did.”
“All right.” He did as she asked.
Instead of his cheek, Katie tried to touch his chest where it was exposed through his shirt. “Well?” she asked quietly.
“It’s warm.” Without opening his eyes he put his hand over the spot she was touching. “Right here.”
“So it’s not just me.”
He opened his eyes. “No.”
For a moment their gazes locked and neither of them moved. Finally Katie said, “Okay then.”
Chapter Four
So she had a spirit hanging out in her room. Never mind that he was as hunky as they came. He was not…well, solid. That was definitely important when deciding what she wanted in a boyfriend or a lover.
Not that she was looking for one.
On the positive side, since he was a spirit, there was very little he could do to harm her.
Then again, she already regretted that he couldn’t lay those work-roughened hands on her. The frosty tingles were interesting but her girl parts were clamoring for more. And if Seamus kept looking at her the way he was right now—as if she were a well-stocked dessert buffet and he had been dieting for a decade—she was likely to make a complete fool of herself.
“Is there a way to break the curse?” Katie asked, hoping to change the direction of her thoughts.
“I think so. A few generations after I was cursed I approached the local wisewoman and asked for help. Heloise was her name. She managed to locate Etain’s diary and pieced together information from Etain’s ramblings.”
“What do you have to do to lift it?”
“I have to declare my love to the woman I was destined for.”
Katie’s heart skipped around in her chest. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
Seamus’ eyebrows lifted in question. “You think finding the one person that you were supposed to be with isn’t hard?”
“Maybe. I mean, you have to believe in that sort of thing first.”
“True,” he agreed.
“Then you have to find that
person.”
“And how do you know that the person you found is really the person?”
“My mom used to tell me that the heart always knows.”
Their eyes met. A warm sensation blossomed in Katie’s belly and spread through her limbs.
“Perhaps your mom was right,” he said quietly.
Katie blinked and tore her gaze away. She cleared her throat and asked, “So what ended up happening to Etain? I sincerely hope she didn’t get away with cheating on her husband and putting curses on people.”
“Nay.” Seamus walked over to the window and looked out. “His lordship returned from his trip the morning after she burned my family’s house and was given a full account of all that had transpired. Since no one could find me or my body, they assumed she had killed me and dumped my body somewhere it couldn’t be found.”
He took a deep breath. “She was hanged for murder not long after.”
“Good.”
Seamus’ eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I didn’t realize you were a bloodthirsty woman.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah, well, some people just need to be killed.”
Her comment got a chuckle out of Seamus. “I suppose they do.”
Katie was glad to see some of the tension leave his face and shoulders. “There’s no other way to lift the curse?”
Seamus shook his head. “Heloise tried everything she could think of. She read journals, dug up old family stories and even offered to contact Etain on the other side.”
“What about ghosts? Did you try talking with the local ghosts to see if they knew anything?”
“No. I don’t have a lot of contact with the castle spirits. Most of them keep to themselves. The few I do talk to aren’t easy to communicate with. It’s like talking to them while being underwater.” He froze with a strange look on his face. One that Katie was more than familiar with. It was the one that people wore when they thought she was either crazy or a freak of nature. “But you can, can’t you?”
The way he drew out each word made her regret even bringing it up. “Maybe. I don’t know for sure. Besides, there may not be any around.”